MEXICO CITY – The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection of Mexico, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, announced this Friday that the detention station where 39 migrants died in the north of the country will close permanently.
“Announce that the determination has been made to suspend the operation of the station in (Ciudad) Juárez, Chihuahua, as of now and definitively,” he said at a press conference together with the specialized prosecutor for human rights from the Attorney General’s Office. of the Republic (FGR), Sara Irene Herrerías.
The migrants who were there, he explained, will be transferred to the Leona Vicario integration center, also located in the city on the border with the United States and which depends on the Ministry of Labor, and not the National Institute of Migration (INM).
“It is not a temporary station, but it is a place where they can offer food and medical services. It is an integration center for migrants”, Rodríguez explained.
For his part, Herrerías insisted that the five people arrested are in provisional detention and will face a hearing to formulate the charges and link to the process next Tuesday, after it was postponed this Friday.
These five detainees are three INM officials and two agents from the private security company CAMSA, which operated the immigration station, while the migrant who allegedly started the fire that ended up causing the death of 39 people has also been identified.
Meanwhile, the sixth arrest warrant issued, which has not yet been completed, corresponds to another agent of the private security company.
However, Herrería has evaded giving more details about these people, alleging that they have not yet been charged, or about the possible responsibility of high-ranking INM officials.
Last Monday night, a fire killed 39 people, of whom six were Hondurans, seven Salvadorans, 18 Guatemalans, one Colombian, and seven Venezuelans. There were about 70 migrants at the station.
Of the 28 injured, Rodríguez affected, 24 remain hospitalized and four were discharged.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced that this Friday he will visit Ciudad Juárez, although he evaded answering if he will meet with the injured.
“I will be attending to the medical part, basically, what matters most to me is the attention to the wounded. I do not know (if I am going to visit the victims), but I am going to have a meeting with the doctors to ensure that they do not lack anything, that we can save their lives, now that is the fundamental thing, ”he indicated in his daily press conference .
According to local media reports, López Obrador was received amid protests by migrants who demanded an immigration law in accordance with human rights.
“Justice”, “no death, yes life” or “we want to be treated with love because we are not criminals” were some of the slogans that these people yelled at the president, reported the newspaper Milenio.
Keep reading:
• Amnesty International: deadly fire in Ciudad Juárez is the result of inhumane policies
• Those responsible for the fire in Ciudad Juárez where immigrants died are presented before the Prosecutor’s Office
• Relatives of migrants killed in a fire in Ciudad Juárez demand justice and claim: “migration agents mistreat us in Mexico”